I was just over at Desiree Erotique’s blog, where she’s got a post up, outlining her latest conversation with James Lightsey, NCP Author Liaison Extraordinaire.

She writes:

“Yesterday I finally received a reply to my email sent to Andrea DePasture at NCP, in which I informed her of my request to be released from my contract, and the reasons thereof. Now the reply I got didn’t come from Andrea, it came from james lightsey…..

The content gist of Mr. lightsey’s reply was to inform me that NCP is only required to pay royalties twice a year (something I already knew) and an allusion to something about their trying to pay quarterly in order to make it easier for the staff. None of this addressed the situation that the royalty statement he’d last sent reflected earnings made in the last quarter of 2007, which should be, logically, reflective of the monies he’d promised to send by a check.

He proceeded to tell me that my attempt to renege on my contract was being rejected and that I would not be let out. I had never used the word renege so this was one he’d come up with on his own. So I replied to him by asking if by renege he meant this- and I pasted his assurance emailed on February 19th to send the check out that week.

Not surprising, he did not respond.

This correspondence left me with the feeling that since the check hasn’t yet arrived Mr. lightsey had changed his mind about sending it, and furthermore had no intention of sending it any time soon.

Later in the day, my husband contacted Mr. lightsey and sent him as exhibit a copy of the very sales statement Mr. lightsey had forwarded to me some weeks before. My husband let him know that according to the language of my contract NCP was in fact in breach. To this Mr. lightsey responded with the claim my check had already been sent, and Mr. lightsey went on to tell my husband that he could stick that in his exhibit. My husband then replied to Mr. lightsey that, indeed, all his correspondences do go into his exhibit.”

If Mr Lightsey was in my employ, I’d have to sack him because quite frankly he comes across as an unprofessional, incompetent fool. NCP obviously don’t care that he makes them look even more ridiculous than they did before.

Des later had a confirmation from one of the owners, Andrea DePasture, that they wont be releasing her from her contract. In that case, why don’t they at least pay her?

They’re blaming the lack of royalty payments on book-keeping errors. What a load of bollocks.

I’d say they were having financial difficulties and are struggling to pay their authors.

UPDATE

Ahem just posted James Lightsey’s latest ramblings in the comments section. It’s a doozey.

Here’s an excerpt:

About Exclusivity
The is a powerful word, in our contract where it says “the rights” the means exclusive. While it is possible to sell your print rights to one publisher and e-book rights to another publisher.

No publisher will ever knowingly buy the rights to a book that have been sold elsewhere. That would be like going to pick up the new car you just bought and finding out that three other people bought the same car. When you buy a car, you don’t buy the exclusive rights,
it is understood that by buying it that you are buying the exclusive rights.

You have only ‘one’ print rights and only ‘one’ e-book rights. To sell a thing that you only have one of many times would be immoral, unethical, and beyond a doubt illegal.

Oh. My. God.

You’d think the higher-ups at NCP would have taken away his keyboard by now.

He continues:

About Civility

I am at a loss to explain why there has been this breakdown in civility. It seems all that we get anymore, particularly from some of the new authors are demands and threats. The only thing that I can figure is that we somehow picked up some of the problem authors from some of the defunct e-pubs.

As for contract release, as I stated before, Ms DePasture is reviewing the booklist for books that can come down(WHICH MEANS CONTRACT RELEASE) No demands, threats, tantrums, or team of lawyers will get a book released before its expiration date unless Ms Depature approves it.

I know she’s a writer, but it’s one of those posts that really makes you look at your life, and gives you greater appreciation for the things that we tend to take for granted.

Her post begins:

I received an email earlier today that struck me vividly. It was a question from a fan asking me what it was like to live my life. To have good family and everything I have ever wanted and it made me want to cry on so many levels that it drove me here to the keyboard. She asked me how I was able to see my characters so vividly and the answer is simple. I’ve been there.

She continues:

I know what it’s like to live and love with fear, to be mocked with cruelty and to have to try and find shelter through the most vicious of storms. If there is one scene in all the books I relate to most, it’s the one of Zarek walking barefoot through the blizzard, seeking comfort. Of him standing outside, looking inside the cheerful house and wishing with all his heart that he was one of the happy, warm people inside.

At this point, I know I have to read on:

I know what it’s like to live in fear of being hit for nothing more than daring to meet someone’s gaze. There was a time in my life when I was too scared to even ask for a ketchup packet at McDonald’s because I didn’t want to be hit or insulted for the audacity. I know the courage it takes to put your life back together after it’s been shattered into pieces. To boldly stand up in front of the world, raise my fist at it and shout, “I am here and I will not be your victim! I am a human being and I may not matter to you, but I do matter to me and I will not let you hurt me anymore!”

Finding that self worth, that strength inside to stand and fight when all you want to do is curl up and die is the hardest thing. But as my mother so often said, I came into this world backwards and I’ve been that way ever since. Because nothing I ever did as a child was good enough to please those around me, I learned to not care what other people thought of me. If I’m to be judged, it will be for who I am not for who I’m trying to be to make someone else happy.

I will not let my children know the hurtful words that echo inside me from my childhood. They won’t grow up in fear and hurt. They won’t flinch when someone raises a hand near them and they won’t sit with their back to the wall because they’re afraid of being hurt if they let their guard down for even a heartbeat. My greatest gift to them is normality.

That last line really struck a cord with me. So often we think that normality is just a synonym for boring, when really, it probably means that you are loved and cherished by those around you, or/and that you have people around you who make sure that no harm befalls you.

Worst of all, I know what it’s like to be homeless. To live in fear of being found out that I don’t have shelter for my baby. No human being should ever know the degradation of not having enough money to eat and being mocked by others because of it. I have been that person you passed on the road, walking to work in her brown uniform and a light windbreaker in the winter time so that she could work a ten hour shift and then walk home– grateful that I had a job where they’d allow me to buy my dinner at half the price so that I could at least eat one meal that day.

I think that as a reader, I sometimes forget that authors have lives outside their writing. We forget that they have histories and have probably experienced hardships that we know nothing about. We forget that their lives aren’t always the moonlight and roses that we imagine them to be. It’s good to be reminded that after the Happy Ever After, the sometimes harsh realities of real life continues for the creators of the books that we most hold dear.

I wont post any more excerpts on here, but you should really go and read her post, it’s truly heart-breaking, yet at the same time, life-affirming.